January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

They put on events, they readily share geocaching tricks and tips and they challenge new and seasoned geocachers with their hides. They are the January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees.

December 2012 Featured Geocacher of the Month, Moneydork

Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for January.

Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be awarded the Featured Geocacher of the Month title.

In December, Wayne, a.k.a. Moneydork was recognized for establishing himself as one of Australasian’s most prolific geocachers. His efforts to support the community as a Geocaching volunteer reviewer and good Samaritan have not gone unnoticed. He even managed to organize New Zealand’s very first Mega-Event from 3500 km (2175 miles) away. According to fellow geocachers, Moneydork’s hides and events are legendary Down Under and he never hesitates to give his all to the sport.

Here are your nominees for the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

Mr Bluesky writes, “On November 29th, Don, [a.k.a. Kirret] will have found a geocache every single day of the year, since November 2011. He has done this in three different countries and on two continents. This year alone he has found over 1,700 geocaches, including a grand haul of 100 on March the 27th. Don worked in Scotland in 2010 and 2011 and I got to meet him through geocaching. We immediately became firm friends. I had the pleasure of geocaching with him in Canada in July 2012 and then again on August 18th in Scotland. Don is very enthusiastic about geocaching and has, just by meeting people while out geocaching, gotten many involved in this hobby by informing them of what he was doing and how enjoyable it is. He mostly geocaches with his wife and son and is one of Guildford, England’s most prolific geocachers. He is out in all weather conditions with a smile on his face and a GPS in hand. I think his achievements this year is a remarkable feat.”

ttcm4geo writes, “If you visit Prescott, Arizona as we were one weekend, you will note something curious. Many of the geocaches you visit will have a note stating that ‘while you are in Prescott, you must find a geocache called Raven’s Labyrynth.’ So many geocacher said this that we finally decided to pursue it. The geocache itself is amazing, which I am sure took weeks to construct. Then we found out that the geocache owner has many similarly thought-out geocaches in the area. In fact, Prescott is known as ‘Ravenland.’ But, even more amazing is that if you email Dan, a.k.a. The Raven with a question, he promptly replies and tells you to call him. So we called him and got some assistance. He was very nice, and you can tell that his only goal is to help people enjoy geocaching. His geocaches are creative, well thought out and so much fun. He does all this work for people many of whom he will never meet. Therefore, I think he deserves this recognition.”

SuperGoober writes, “Tim, a.k.a. The Weasel is what geocaching is all about. He gives back so much more than he takes. He hosted the very first CITO in the Midwest: EIGA 2004 CEDAR RAPIDS CITO EVENT. He is an active member and Board Director for the Iowa Geocacher Organization and a volunteer for the Linn County Conservation. Tim has conducted and assisted in over 50 geocaching 101, 201 and 301 classes and workshops throughout the State of Iowa and abroad. His knowledge of the wilderness extends well beyond that of an average geocacher. He uses his extensive knowledge of the outdoors to help other geocachers by placing some very creative and educational geocaches. The Weasel has an impeccable sense as to what geocaching is all about. He realizes that cache maintenance is very necessary to ensure that geocaching is fun and that the geocache is there. He is just unstoppable.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon and a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for January’s award through Sunday, January 20th.

Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and include the following information:

Your name, the name of your nominee, their username

A picture of the nominee

Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month

Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award.

Nominations for the February Geocacher of the Month must be received by Friday, February 8th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.

My vote is for the Weasel. Not only does he enjoy geocaching, but by having so many classes and workshops he strives to bring in more people to the hobby.

K Klare

I leave my vote for Weasel. Every event I’ve made it to the past few years The Weasel has been there either as an educator or as an event coordinator. He seems to have real passion for caching.

T-Team Cachers

We vote Weasel, gotta love the outdoor lessons he has put out.

Kakiegeo

My vote is for The Raven!

http://www.facebook.com/people/Tim-Stewart/1282627882 Tim Stewart

Hi Everybody, The Weasel here. What an honor to nominated along side people such as The Raven and Kirret!! I think all of us nominees are very deserving and Groundspeak is going to have a tough decision to make. To echo what The Raven said, I encourage all the people who have voted for me not to use the “vote down” function on ANY of the other nomiees. Let’s keep this fun and remember this is about having fun and Geocaching. We are all part of a great geocaching community and all 3 of us nominees have obviously done some pretty great things, otherwise we wouldn’t have been selected for this great honor.
I want to personally wish my fellow nominees the best of luck and hope to run into each of them at some point and do some of their caches!!
Thanks again to SuperGoober form nominating me, Groundspeak for selecting me as a nominee, and best of luck to The Raven and Kirret!!!
Happy Caching!!
The Weasel

Team-Omega-25

I vote for The Weasel

cactusart kids

We vote for the Raven and his fantastic caches. He still finds time to go to our simple little caches. A true geocacher.

Sue

My vote is for the Weasel. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the honor! We love you Weasel!!

Lookin’Good

The Raven gets our vote! We love his caches, his enthusiasm, his creativity. And he’s such a humble guy too! We take visitors to Prescott just to experience Ravenland and we’ve gone back several times just to try our luck at The Raven’s Labyrinth again. Dan’s caches are memorable, family friendly and FUN.

http://www.facebook.com/myneese Kraig Neese GC-Neeskers

I must be misunderstanding or just flat missing something. Why is my comment and every other comment for the Raven being voted down? I thought that we are supposed to be showing support for our choice and praising the other nominees for getting to this stage. The vote down button is there to be used and I can respect that. However this really just seems like sour grapes by some folks.

For those that have voted my comment up, I thank you as I meant every word.

http://www.facebook.com/tdkumpfmiller Tamara Kumpfmiller

Dan & Tim (& Kirret too), thank you for being the upstanding people that you are! I read your comments about “down-voting”, and I was thinking the same thing. It’s discourteous to dishonor the votes of other voters, even if they aren’t voting for your choice of candidates!! Let’s show the classy people that we are (as Geocachers) and only up vote one another!!

frog4peace

I am voting for The Weasel!! My hubby and I just moved to the Cedar Rapids, IA area and he has been very kind in making us feel welcome in the geocaching community here. We’ve met up on some FTF runs and he’s always been very helpful in letting us know what’s going on in the area. Thanks, Weasel… good luck!

http://www.facebook.com/karen.k.dusenberry Karen Klepper Dusenberry

My vote is for The Weasel!

http://www.facebook.com/jim.tilley.73 Jim Tilley

I enthusiastically cast my vote for The Raven, who not only raised my awareness of geocaching to an entirely new level, but has put my region on the geomap for hundreds of others. If promoting our sport is one of the criteria for geocacher or the month, The Raven simply wins hands down. Arizona Troutbum.

ShortNTall

Cast a vote for The RAVEN!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/Tina.Gaby Tina Gaby

I vote for the weasel.

Ryan Kumpfmiller

As the 2nd half of DragonFaery, I have to lend my vote to the Raven! Having found many of his caches & hoping to find many more, his caches are by far, the most creative & yet difficult & engaging caches we’ve ever located. At one point, my in-laws were in town (they’re the ones who got US going on Geocaching), and we had desperately wanted to show them the Best Friends cache… it was down for maintenance, so my wife emailed Dan to see when it would be available. Not only did Dan respond & say he was working on it, but that he’d have it back up for us to be able to find it that day! This is only ONE of the MANY encounters we’ve had with the Raven! He truly should be the Geocacher on Call – he is never long to reply to an email, phone call or text with helpful information & if is IS available to help, he’ll met you at the cache (or somewhere & help you find it)! He is truly a wonderful example of what Geocaching is all about, in our community! Reading the votes for all the candidates though, there are 3 very worth recipients for this award! Tough decision, and I don’t envy the moderators/judges/etc. who have to select the winner, but my vote goes Raven!! Thank you!!

Team Zinger

I vote for the Weasel. I have found several of Tim’s Quality
caches. Tim has used many of his caches as teaching tools as you can see by
reading the cache descriptions of his puzzle/mystery caches. Tim also takes
great pride in keeping his caches well maintained and has placed a Maintenance Challenge
cache in his area to help promote cache maintenance.

Vince

From reading all the post here I say The Weasel

Randy Lyons

I give credit where credit is due and my vote go’s to “Tim A.K.A. “The Weasel” who has given so much to the sport of geocaching. Tim, along with his good friend “Supergoober” have put together many workshops and clinics for geocachers of all abilities. Tim has hosted events and has attended many more to build the camaraderie among the area cachers. Many do not know that he has a degree in Parks and Natural resources which he has used to create a wonderful series of caches called “Outdoor Lesson’s”. These unknown caches have ask us explore and discover things like birds, amphibians, tracks, skulls, sounds and more. Giving all those geocachers who have researched and discovered the diffrent types a better appreciation for the outdoors. Another reason Tim is deserving of my vote is the amount of time he spends on maintaining his caches. I always know that Tim’s caches will be located at GZ because of the care he takes in tethering his caches and performing routine maintenance. Tim has created “The Weasel Maintenance Cache” which encourages cachers to perform maintenance when they are out caching. For every 10 caches they perform maintenance on they can come find “The Weasel Maintenance Cache” and log a find, and while they do they can pick up supplies like small baggies, log sheets or pencils/pens which are stocked in this nice medium size cache. My favorite reason to vote for Tim is for his signature style of hides. Many of his caches are hidden up high and more than a few have that nice tree icon on the cache page. Who doesn’t like to climb tree’s. If you look you will see that Tim puts out a lot of great caches and receives many favorite points for his hides. So I congratulate you Tim on your nomination and best of luck.
Happy Hunting
Aceey

Gatkini

Raven is the man he gets my Vote his hides are very special

Cathy Atkins

The Raven is the best VOTE RAVEN for President 2016

Linda Waterman

I am voting for The Raven because he has placed bunches of very cool and creative caches in the Prescott, Arizona area (Ravenland). Truly a tribute to quality; and my mantra for 2013 is Quality not Quantity. – PinkDolphin

joey2

‘The Raven’ deserves this honor!!! I am proud to call Dan, ‘The Raven’, MY FRIEND! He is the epitome of geocaching!! We have done almost all of his caches— and the word that comes to mind is—‘WOW’!!! From ‘Indiana Jones and the Flames of Chantico’ parts 1 and 2, ‘The Raven’s Labyrinth’, ‘Amazing’, ‘The Origami Raven’, ‘Best Friends’, ‘The Keyhole’….only to name a few— All are great adventures that will lead to many hours of fun and excitement!! He has some really awesome mind-bending puzzle caches also– ‘Bitten by the Bug’ and ‘Im Going Sightly Mad…’ to name 2— that will challenge you to the core!! Everything Dan does is exceptional! He is willing to drop everything to take someone who has just arrived in town (Prescott, Arizona!!) on his ‘Ravenland Tour’!!! He is probably one of the nicest, kindest persons you could ever meet!! We have never heard him speak a bad word about anyone, instead giving praise and recognition to his fellow geocachers!! He has single-handedly lobbied in the City of Prescott offices to get geocaching accepted and even sanctioned by the city officials!! They LOVE him!! He has brought SO much tourism to the city of Prescott!! If you go you won’t be disappointed!! I can’t wait for more—- wish we all could start a fund so we could keep him at home busy in his ‘laboratory’ so he can give us more and more ‘Raven’ caches for our enjoyment!! —-Thanks for the great times ‘my friend’!!!

Jeff

The Weasel is a good example of what extreme caching is all about. Some of the best 4 star cache placed in Iowa. As others said Tim did put on some of the very first. Has a full list of stats. My vote goes to The Weasel.

Josh

The Weasel Gets My Vote. (I quote “I don’t speak wind”).

_saphira_

I vote for The Weseal – great cacher and great person

_Little_One_

I also vote for The Weseal.

http://www.facebook.com/TWD1976 Troy Duncan

The Raven gets my vote. We had the pleasure of visiting Ravenland on a vacation in December 2012, logged 10 Raven caches, completed the Raven Challenge in Phoenix, had the pleasure of attending an event centered around Ravenland (met the guest of honor) and had a great time with many awesome memories. What an amazing experience. Dan shows us that if we get the proper support of our community anything is possible…… and getting out of the “geo-box” is exactly what he does. Placing caches ridiculously above the bar is not where he stops however, need a tour guide? He’ll be there! Need help on the cache? You got it! Just say the word and help is on its way. His commitment does not end when he publishes his caches. We left Ravenland inspired to become better geocachers for the community.
Troy of T&AD

dnfu

Even though our vote remains with The Raven, the love for the Weasel got our attention and are thinking them worthy of an upcoming trip! That is probably the best tribute one can give to the cacher of the month process. Regardless of who wins, we ALL win by the recomendations.

baad daata

I have experienced some of The Raven’s caches and they are truly remarkable. I have some caches that I am pretty proud of but this guy’s creations humbled me. They are well-conceived, creative, fun and demonstrate some fine craftsmanship. Did I say “fun”?

IowaHawk

The Weasel gets my vote too from south MO, I am new to this game but its clear to see who is the top candidate.

Mary Vogel

My vote is for The Raven. The man and his caches are a cut above the rest. We are constantly amazed at his creativity. He puts so much thought, talent and time into building his caches that you are assured a quality unlike any you’ve seen. Then he follows up with a genuine caring that each and every person enjoy them, getting personally involved in your caching experience. We are honored to have The Raven here in Arizona, and all who get to know him will be honored as well.

Betty

OMG! For sure the best guy is the Weasel. I was in Iowa on vacation last summer to see some old College friends and we ran into Tim Geocaching at an event. Tim told us all about Geocaching. The Weasel however stands a bit taller than the rest. Being a tremendously creative Cacher, he’s a very down-to-earth person who’ll help and share his experiences with you. Humble and giving to nature and his big heart are worthy of respect to this nomination. I personally know of no other Geocacher who has created so much interest in the game that he draws so many people to this sport. The Weasel definitely gets our vote! His commitment does not end when he publishes his cache. It is well known that when you go looking for a Weasel cache you can be sure it will be there for you to find. Good Luck Tim!

Gordon Smith

Well said. Personally, I voted for the Raven largely because I have experience with him and his caches and don’t with you or Kirret. I have no reason to believe that either of you would ever warrant a “vote down” and would hope that no-one would do that (I didn’t/won’t). I’m sure you are all great assets to our caching community. Good luck!

Kim

absolutely the weasel all here are great to be in the nominations I will base my vote on difficulty and train ratings of caches. You rock Weasel.

http://twitter.com/_AZTech_ David Lucas

Another well-deserved vote for The Raven. While I haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting any of his caches, I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about them and the amazingly high percentage of favorite points is just another measure of the quality of his cache hides and I am looking forward to taking the kids up to Ravenland soon. Also, the fact that The Raven noticed the downvoting going on and asked everyone to be respectful to others and not downvote others speaks to his integrity and desire to keep geocaching fun for everyone.

Rachel

Doing some research on the nominees and If this was the play offs then the Weasel would be going to the super bowl. If we had to go with numbers we would still pick the best one so our team is going with the Weasel. Good Luck from Sanata Fe, New Mexico.

Thomas S

I am VERY honored to give a vote to The Weasel.

When I started caching, I tried to get my son who is 10 involved with me in it, but like most kids his age, his nose was stuck in his DS and video games and didn’t have ANY interest in doing any caching.

I came across The Weasel Outdoor Lesson caches I thought this MIGHT help my son get more curious about caching.

At first when he looked them, he didn’t seem very interested yet. Once I got him to actually sit down and LOOK at the cache pages, he got REALLY interested right away. Even when I wasn’t helping him trying to slove the Outdoor Lesson caches, he worked on them by himself! I have NEVER seen my son this engrossed in something so educational before!!

Once my solved one of the “Lessons”, he was so proud of himself, as was I! These educational caches have done something that NOTHING we have seen before, which was my son actually interested in school, especially his science classes!

He was so proud of solving a couple of the “Lessons”, that he had to tell his science teacher about it. My son has taken a total 180 when it comes to his studies (especially Science), and raised his grade from a C- to a B+.

I can’t thank the Weasel enough for these educational caches!! It has improved my son’s school studies and has brought us closer as father and son!!

I TRUELY hope that the people that decide the winner don’t strictly go by the number of votes a person gets, but rather life changing instances like this that mean much more to a person than the “smiley”.

Thanks again Weasel!!!

Nathan Blattner

Definitely The Weasel!!!!

girly girl

The Weasel for my favorite cache of his GC2WN8W.

Tom

Weasel is a god of caches.

Sweeney Toddlers

Kirret for us, if for no other reason than we have met him and he seems a nice guy. Also he helped set a cracking cache trail in the Clyde Valley…..

IowaStateDoc

If you have not found a Weasel cache then you have not experienced the hunt. Here in South Florida we have mostly park and grabs unless you want a gator to take your leg off you have to be careful. We were back in Iowa 2 years ago and doing some work at the University of Iowa and we had the privilege to find some of Tim’s hides. I Vote Yes for The Weasel.

kablooey

I am one of those people who ended up in Prescott Arizona and visited some caches that said “while you are in Prescott, you must find a geocache called Raven’s Labyrinth.” So, on our last day, we did indeed visit that cache, and it is BEYOND BELIEF that somebody could have created such a masterpiece of experience and engineering. We can’t wait to go back to Prescott and not only attempt some of The Raven’s other caches, but to REVISIT this cache too! I’ve been trying to rally some friends for a 600-mile roadtrip just to visit this cache again.

mookied

Yes! The Weasel!!!!!!

CRPanther

I vote for The Weasel

S K H

I vote for Weasel! He’s been a huge influence in the caching community and always there to help out fellow cachers. Sometimes helping out cachers without even being asked. Great guy and a great cacher!!!